The People's Liberation Army (PLA) now possesses the means, the motives, and the opportunities to deliver disabling blows against U.S. bases in Japan where the bulk of American military power in Asia is concentrated

Ummm, I hate to break this to the author, but ever since 1964, the Chinese have had these things called "nuclear weapons" that are mounted on things called "ballistic missiles". They can strike almost anywhere in the world, including our bases in the Pacific.

1) Why would the Chinese want to take over America? This is the place they keep sending all their toxic waste to in the form of Barbie dolls and cheap electronic shiat that breaks after a week. This place will be uninhabitable in 20 years.

2) The runways at Midway Island have bushes growing out of them, FFS. Someone get some landscapers out there, stat!

Headline should be:"This just in: military installations are vulnerable to attacks from which they are not prepared"and submitted with an obvious tag.

That's why surprise attacks are so devastating. They are a surprise. The alternative is 24/7 alert which is a greater detriment to security over time because it tires people out and if your "on alert" all the time, it makes people think nothing ever happens on alert status. Plus its cost prohibitive.

What possible motive would the Chinese have for launching an offensive operation that would probably fail in the long run? Other than maybe taking back Taiwan, they just don't have any desires to gain territory. In fact, their interests are served by keeping our military policing the world----it makes it safer for them to conduct trade, and we foot the bill. If they knock out our military, they'll have to start policing the world's oceans.

These guys with military think tanks are supposed to come up with all sort of scenarios. They write papers on these things. MIlitary draws up plans and maybe even does wargames based on them. Remember that war plan from earlier last century our government had against a UK/Canada invasion? Whether there is any real chance of these things happening is another story.

When I was in college and Germany was reunifying (I'm old) we had a speaker come in from a think tank institution who just published a paper in one of the foreign policy journals about how an isolated Russia pissed off at a newly unified Germany could start cold war part II and lead to another European land war. Likely scenario?

H31N0US:Had we the nuclear capabilities of today in 1945, Japan would have never looked eastward for expansion.

I don't think China is that dumb.

That depends. The PRC has some serious structural, erm, challenges that they are going to have deal with. Things like the majority of their commercial loans being worthless, tens of millions of marriage age men without corresponding women (due to the "One Child" policy and selective abortions). So far, they've been able to keep those problems at bay by growing at double digit rates, but that can't last forever. When their economy crashes, as it must at some point, they are going to have a major problem with internal unrest. When that happens, they may look to an outside enemy to focus the attention of the people away from their empty bellies and empty beds.

Best Korea isn't the biggest concern right now. South Korea will have a hardliner nationalist as a president and she (yes, a daughter of a Communist dictator who allied with the USA) will most likely disturb China, Japan, and North Korea simultaneously. Japan will likely have an anti-American ultra-nationalist party in power sooner or later.

We always think that North Korea is a problem in Asia without questioning. I think we need to change our approach.

Besides, North Korea's existence helps selling weapons to Japan and South Korea. The Western world definitely needs to keep North Korea as a valuable secret ally to keep selling weapons.

So, we've established that China has no interest in US territory? Good, we haven't gone insane... yet.

But, I'm surprised I am the first one to mention this. While unlikely, there are plenty of reasons we may end up in a war with China. They decide to take Taiwan. They back North Korea on a conflict with South Korea. They get into a war with Japan over those little islands. They get into a war with the Philippines, Vietnam, etc. over the Spratley Islands.

We have treaties with almost all of the above countries to assist on defense.

If China went to war on the above issues, either its going to go into overtime on diplomacy to keep us out and its counting on us to not back our allies (a good bet) OR they need to consider striking our bases in Asia to stop our response.

It's kind of hard to mount a sneak attack against someone that has radar and satellite surveillance.

Also, am I missing something, or does the Chinese "stealth" just seem to not actually have any actual stealth features? It generally apes the shape of the F-22/F-35, but it seems like it is missing a lot of the details that actually make a plane low observable.

For example, the cockpit has a frame that is flat in the front, while the F-22 and F-35 both have canopy frame that are faceted where they meet the body of the jet to reduce radar returns.

You also have those big round engine nozzles, instead of the F-22 style nozzles. From everything I've read about the subject, attention to those small details matters almost as much in determining what the RCS is going to be of a stealth aircraft than the final shape of the aircraft. There is also advanced materials like carbon fiber and radar absorbing paint that also factors into the equation, so I have a gut feeling that the J-31 actually has a pretty large RCS compared to the American stealths. It honestly might not even be that lower than a traditional aircraft, and if I had to guess I'd think that it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of an F-15 Silent Eagle or an F-18 Super Hornet, which adds some stealthy features on to a traditional airframe.

Oh No! Quick, take even more of my money, military-industrial complex! We only spend more than the next ten nations put together! The poor, the sick, the uneducated? Fark 'em! Our crumbling infrastructure and potholed roads and failing schools? Fark 'em! Give me yet more military spending NOW!

Where the hell is the Obvious tag or is Subby just a fraidy-pants? US military installations vulnerable to attack by cruise and ballistic missiles? Well this has certainly never been a possibility, has it. CNN is almost as pathetic as Faux.

generallyso:Yes CNN, I'm sure China is going to start a war with the US.

Trading partners have never made war on each other, never in history. Right? Only like, usually. Kissinger and Nixon though we could kiss the Chicom ass, give them Haber-Bosch instead of letting them starve and that they would appreciate us for it. Fat farking chance.

The Chicom already believes they are at war with the West. They openly refer to the trade relationship with the US as an Economic War.

The Chicom is building offensive weapons at a fantastic rate.

The Chicom needs oil. Needs it badly.

The Han Chicom believes himself to be the racial and cultural superior of everyone else on the planet and that it is his destiny to bring forced abortion and political re-education camps to every corner of the globe.

This time, China - armed with a large and growing arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles - is poised to reprise Pearl Harbor. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) now possesses the means, the motives, and the opportunities to deliver disabling blows against U.S. bases in Japan where the bulk of American military power in Asia is concentrated.

>motives

What motives? Really, what motives? What possible non-crazy motive would China have to attack us or our allies in Asia and the Pacific?

This doesn't even pass the belly laugh test.

This is about money. This is about the money that Romney promised the military, but since he didn't win the elecion, these propaganda pieces come out to "force" Obama to spend more in Asia. This is truly what Ike warned about.

Apik0r0s:The Han Chicom believes himself to be the racial and cultural superior of everyone else on the planet and that it is his destiny to bring forced abortion and political re-education camps to every corner of the globe.

This won't be a problem if we simply double our defense spending, which will be paid for easily if we keep the Bush tax cuts in place and remove the unbearable burden of corporate taxes on our defense industry.

Apik0r0s:The Han Chicom believes himself to be the racial and cultural superior of everyone else on the planet and that it is his destiny to bring forced abortion and political re-education camps to every corner of the globe.

dittybopper:H31N0US: Had we the nuclear capabilities of today in 1945, Japan would have never looked eastward for expansion.

I don't think China is that dumb.

That depends. The PRC has some serious structural, erm, challenges that they are going to have deal with. Things like the majority of their commercial loans being worthless, tens of millions of marriage age men without corresponding women (due to the "One Child" policy and selective abortions). So far, they've been able to keep those problems at bay by growing at double digit rates, but that can't last forever. When their economy crashes, as it must at some point, they are going to have a major problem with internal unrest. When that happens, they may look to an outside enemy to focus the attention of the people away from their empty bellies and empty beds.

That is the scenario

Perhaps, but I don't think China would go for the US, at least not right away.

At least initially they'd focus on other countries in Southeast Asia that lack strong ties to the West. We'd protest, but as long as they stayed away from countries like Japan or the Philippians we'd probably look the other way. They would want easy victories for propaganda purposes, not a conflict with a superpower where the chances of them coming out ahead long-term are just about zero.

While it's unlikely the US could straight-up conquer China, partially because of it's huge land area and population and partially because we are perhaps the worst imperialists in the history of the planet (which is probably a good thing for the most part), all we'd have to do is turn back their offensives to declare victory.

Apik0r0s:generallyso: Yes CNN, I'm sure China is going to start a war with the US.

Trading partners have never made war on each other, never in history. Right? Only like, usually. Kissinger and Nixon though we could kiss the Chicom ass, give them Haber-Bosch instead of letting them starve and that they would appreciate us for it. Fat farking chance.

The Chicom already believes they are at war with the West. They openly refer to the trade relationship with the US as an Economic War.

The Chicom is building offensive weapons at a fantastic rate.

The Chicom needs oil. Needs it badly.

The Han Chicom believes himself to be the racial and cultural superior of everyone else on the planet and that it is his destiny to bring forced abortion and political re-education camps to every corner of the globe.

Shouldn't they be called Chicaps now? Yes, they are totalitarian in their government, but it's hard to call them Communist now when they are pretty much a free-market capitalist's paradise when it comes to providing cheap labor with few worker protections and no unions. It's basically a Randian wet dream over there run by their country's 1%, and the Party is nothing more than an old boy's club of the country's elite.